Throughout the course of his varied and accomplished almost three decades in business and institutional advancement, Brian S. Crockett has approached each challenge and every opportunity with enthusiasm and a determination to achieve excellence.
In June 2009, Brian was named to be the chief executive officer of the VMI Foundation. In this position, he is responsible for raising and managing funds to support Virginia Military Institute, the nation’s oldest state-supported military college. Currently, the VMI Foundation maintains the most valuable per-student endowment in the United States and provides more than 24% of VMI’s annual budget. Brian’s vision is to build on this success by combining the talents and experience of the Foundation’s staff with the most up-to-date methods and proven “best practices” in order to enhance the Foundation’s ability to match VMI’s long-term and current needs with the interests and passions of current and potential donors.
Brian began his career in advancement in the early 1990s, after working for nine years as a sales and marketing executive first with Xerox and then with Digital Equipment Corporation. In those positions, he learned to turn strong client relationships and consistent and thorough customer service into a solid sales record and developed the skills that have been invaluable to his success as a leader in fundraising.
In 1993, he returned to his alma mater, Rutgers University. Brian had graduated in 1982 and had played football for four years, lettering three times and being named a Rutgers Super-Star Champion twice. He then spent an additional year as a graduate assistant with Rutgers football.
For the next eleven years, Brian coordinated development activities for Rutgers’ 30 sports programs. He introduced many innovations in cultivation, fundraising, and stewardship that, taken together, prompted a dramatic increase in annual giving to athletics by 400%. He also secured numerous capital gifts that altered the university’s landscape, including the expansion and renovation of the Rutgers Stadium and football complex, and raised money for scholarships, program improvements, and facility upgrades that accelerated Rutgers’ successful transition into the Big East Conference.
In 2002, the president of the Rutgers University Foundation asked Brian to take on the additional duty of managing the major-gifts and development activities of five art institutions and professional and graduate schools within Rutgers.
Two years later, Brian accepted the offer to become Rutgers University Foundation’s as vice president for external programs. He implemented a comprehensive strategic plan for fundraising, alumni relations, regional programs, and athletic development; over saw an annual budget of more than more than $6 million; coordinated fundraising effort directed at Rutgers’ 380,000 alumni as well as other potential donors, and planned and executed the unification of Rutgers’ 19 alumni-relations groups into one organization.
In November 2007, Brian left Rutgers to become the vice president for development for the West Point Association of Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy. There, by revitalizing the organization’s fundraising efforts, he laid the groundwork for and oversaw the initial stages of West Point’s current $350 million comprehensive capital campaign, “For Us All,” launched on January 1, 2009.
From scholar-athlete to advancement executive, Brian remains deeply committed to advancing higher education with skilled management, strategic planning, and, above all, personal integrity.